Before she departed for what would be her last trip home, Katherine Groggett left a sticky note on the desk of her roommate and close friend Brenna Garro.
The end of the note read “Life throws curveballs when we least expect them, but they pass with time and a lot of love.”
The note was signed with a heart.
“It’s weird. Even when she’s gone, she knows what to say,” Garro said. “I’ve been keeping that note in mind. Whenever I get sad I think of it — she would want us to mourn, but she would want us to carry on. I’ve just been thinking of that and it’s gotten me through.”
Garro brought it with her when she and the University of Idaho Delta Delta Delta Sorority chapter traveled south to Boise for Groggett’s celebration of life. While there, she gave it to Groggett’s bereaving parents.
“It’s almost like a precursor of what it’s almost like for us, too,” Katherine’s mother, Christy Ploof Groggett, said of the note.
Katherine Groggett, a third-year student and president of her sorority’s chapter, died in a car crash Sept. 14.
Courtesy Photo
Groggett was the youngest of three siblings. Her older brother, Nate Groggett, described her as a passionate person who was “always a joy” and possessed a smile that “lit up everyone’s day.”
The University of Idaho junior, who studied nutrition and food science, had participated in dance programs since her youth. Katherine came to UI with a full-ride scholarship for dance, according to her mother, Christy Ploof Groggett. She originally majored in dance and physical therapy, but later switched her major to food science and nutrition.
Whenever she and Garro, her roommate, would go out to parties together, Garro said Katherine would liven the room.
“Whenever we went out together, she would just be the goofy person with me,” she said. “Even though she was in the dance program, every time we went to a party she could not dance to save her life. I don’t know what it was, but she was just the goofiest person.”
Another example of her giddy nature Garro offered was a time during their sophomore year at UI in which the two drove up to Moscow from the Treasure Valley separately, but still together in spirit.
“We were in separate cars but we had these walkie talkies and we talked the entire six hours up,” Garro said. “We were just singing back-and-forth on the walkie talkies and making weird comments about what we saw and we played eye-spy. We weren’t together — I was in front of her — but we were having a really good time.”
Groggett said her daughter walked early — at 8 months old.
“She was always a little bit ahead of everybody,” Christy said.
Groggett said her daughter was a leader in her dance team at a young age. As a round of older classmates left, Groggett said Katherine became someone to look up to for younger incoming dancer, earning her the nickname “Mama G.”
She was a hard-worker in and out of the classroom growing up. Groggett said her daughter could often be found dancing in studio until late at night.
Katherine Groggett’s significant other of roughly six months, Ian Mcgonegal, said Groggett was always letting those around her know how much she cared for them.
“Even in hard times, she tried her best to stay positive, and that’s probably one of the best things I admired about her,” Mcgonegal said.
Kyle Pfannenstiel can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @pfannyyy.